Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy repeatedly asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to give a straight answer as to whether President Joe Biden would ever consider restarting construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline — and she repeatedly gave him the runaround.
Doocy asked three times for a simple “yes or no,” noting at Wednesday’s press briefing that the Biden administration has often said that all options are on the table with regard to dealing with the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and questioning whether that meant that restarting construction on the Canada-to-the-United-States pipeline was one of those options.
WATCH:
Doocy: "Is a restart of the the Keystone XL construction completely off the table as long as Joe Biden is president?"
Psaki: "Well, why don't you tell me what that would help you address?"
Doocy: "I'm asking you if it is an option. You guys say are all options on the table." pic.twitter.com/i4JInd97dz
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 9, 2022
“Quick yes or no, because there’s a lot of grey area here: Is a restart of the the Keystone XL construction completely off the table as long as Joe Biden is president?”
“Well, why don’t you tell me what that would help address?” Instead of giving the requested “yes or no,” Psaki responded with a question of her own.
“I’m asking you if it is an option. You guys say all options on the table. Is restarting Keystone construction one of them?”
Psaki pushed back again, evading the question and instead explaining why she did not believe restarting Keystone construction would solve any of the problems currently facing the American people — namely the global need for more oil production without depending on Russia to get it.
WATCH:
Psaki: "If we're trying to bring about more supply, that does not address any problem."
Doocy: "Is supply from Canada, a friendly ally, instead of Saudi Arabia –"
Psaki: "That — that's…we're already getting that oil…The pipeline is just a delivery mechanism[.]" pic.twitter.com/OWpJR5Cvxg
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 9, 2022
“If we’re trying to bring about more supply, that does not address any problem,” Psaki protested.
“It’s supply from Canada, a friendly ally, instead of Saudi Arabia,” Doocy pointed out.
“That — that’s already — we’re already getting that oil, Peter,” Psaki continued. “The pipeline is just a delivery mechanism, it is not an oilfield. So it does not provide more supply into the system. It does not address …”
Doocy interrupted to ask once more whether or not Keystone would ever be on the table as long as Biden remained in the White House.
WATCH:
Doocy: "Is it possible that Joe Biden will ever say, 'you guys can go ahead w/construction of Keystone XL?"
Psaki: "There's no plans for that & it would not address any of the problems we're have currently." (7/7) pic.twitter.com/J6Q7aC6JOr
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 9, 2022
“Is it possible that Joe Biden will ever say, ‘You guys can go ahead with construction of Keystone XL?”
Once again, Psaki did not directly answer the question — although she did say that there were no plans for that to happen at the current time. “There’s no plans for that and it would not address any of the problems we’re have currently,” she said, moving on to take the next question.
Doocy also pressed Psaki during Wednesday’s briefing on the rising gas prices and the Biden administration’s attempts to spin those price hikes — which have been climbing steadily for nearly a year — as entirely the fault of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As The Daily Wire reported:
“Why did you guys decide to rebrand the rising gas prices as the #PutinPriceHike?” Doocy asked.
“I mean, if you want to use that on Fox, I welcome that,” Psaki pushed back.
Doocy continued to press, noting both that gas prices had been rising for months prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and that the Biden administration had laid the blame for the rising costs on a series of other things as they occurred.